Kuwaiti emir, Iraqi PM meet to discuss regional issues

By Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY (AA) - Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Wednesday met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi in Kuwait City to discuss recent developments in the Middle East.

According to the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), the two men discussed ways to improve relations between their countries.

During his visit, al-Abadi also met his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah, with whom he discussed “issues of mutual concern”, according to KUNA.

Al-Abadi arrived in Kuwait Wednesday morning for a one-day visit after making earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The visit to oil-rich Kuwait is the first of its kind since al-Abadi assumed the Iraqi premiership in 2014.

Notably, his visit comes amid an unprecedented political crisis pitting the small gulf state of Qatar against a handful of other Arab countries.

Last week, al-Abadi said that his government opposed the current embargo on Qatar -- imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain -- calling on the antagonists to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

On June 5, five Arab states -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Yemen -- abruptly severed relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups.

Mauritania followed suit shortly afterward, while Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations with Doha.

Qatar, for its part, denies the claims, describing the moves to isolate it as “unjustified”.